VIEW FROM THE TOP
KNOCKING ON MEXICO’S SOLAR DOOR HONGBIN FANG Director of Product Marketing for LONGi Green Energy Technology
Q: What elements of Mexico’s energy market and the
primary aspect of our company, compared to other PV
reform spiked LONGi Green Energy Technology’s interest?
manufacturers. We consistently invest 5-7 percent of our
A: The first element that interested us was the demand
total revenue into technology research and development.
factor. Mexico has exhibited strong economic growth,
Our company always strives to develop better equipment
which will foster energy demand in the coming years. The
to improve productivity and better technology to
Mexican government is determined to keep the Energy
improve performance, which translates into a consistent
Reform on the road to success and this will help boost
trend of increasingly competitive products with better
the percentage of renewables in the energy mix. We are
performance and lower cost.
convinced that Mexico’s PV market has bright days ahead of it, and we want to take advantage of every opportunity.
Q: What client portfolio are you targeting in Mexico? A: We believe all segments of the market are important,
Q: How did LONGi Green Energy Technology achieve its
with particular interest in distributed generation
low LCOE solutions?
applications. In Mexico, the majority of the volume in
A: From the beginning, we focused on monocrystalline
renewable energy is still owned by utility-scale projects.
technology because intrinsically it constitutes a better
With the distributed generation sector (industrial,
material for efficient energy conversion, demonstrates
commercial and residential) expanding at a much faster
better energy yield, and delivers better value (lower LCOE)
rate, and the much higher value of our high efficiency
for end users. The main obstacle for widespread mono
mono modules, we think we will have a larger impact in
module adoption was the higher cost in manufacturing
distributed generation applications to help the industry
a mono wafer in the past. For the last 17 years, we have
bring down total system cost, as well as lower LCOE with
focused our efforts on technology development in
better energy yield.
mono wafer manufacturing to improve productivity and performance, thus driving down cost. Our company was
Q: What are LONGi’s longer term plans for Mexico?
founded in 2000, yet by 2013 we were the largest mono
A: Our company goes hand-in-hand with high
wafer manufacturer in the world. At the end of 2014, we
performance, high quality and competitive prices. We
acquired Lerri Solar, a small module manufacturer in China,
are trying to understand the market, going through a
to strategically move downstream to solar cell and module
learning phase, learning how to work with local players,
manufacturing, and deliver the value of mono technology
letting our customers understand the value of high-
closer to our end users. Because we can produce high-
efficiency mono modules so we can make an even better
efficiency mono modules at lower costs, ensuring better
contribution. Mexico and Latin America are important
value for our customers and the end user, we have delivered
markets for LONGi Green Energy Technology and we are
more than 3GW of mono modules to the market within
committed to bringing high quality, better performance
two years, increasing our market share of mono modules
mono modules at a competitive price to those markets.
in China from 5 percent in 2014 to 27 percent in 2016. We
We hope to become a significant part of the market so
expect this share to reach 35 percent by the end of 2017.
more and more customers can realize the value of highefficiency mono modules.
Q: How does the company’s focus on research and development set it apart from other PV manufacturers? A: In 2014, we expanded from our initial business in mono
LONGi Green Energy Technology was founded in 2000. The
wafers and ingots to mono cells and modules, as well
Chinese company is the largest single crystal manufacturer
as project development, to become a truly vertically
worldwide. It provides high-quality products and services for
integrated company. Technology has always been a
PV systems and semiconductors products
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